Spitting Image - Send In The Troops
The Sound of Maggie! - Send in the Troops
"Send in the Troops" is the fourth song from the Spitting Image special The Sound of Maggie!, and is a parody of "Send in the Clowns" by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 musical A Little Night Music. The Spitting Image parody is sung as duet between Margaret Thatcher and General Leopoldo Galtieri, the former President of Argentina.
The song features the two leads reminiscing about the Falklands War, and seemingly about how nothing was really gained from the conflict except the deaths of servicemen of both sides, as well as a surge in popularity for Thatcher at home in Britain.
Lyrics[]
(Margaret Thatcher)
Isn't it rich? Aren't we a pair?
Me with my troubles at home,
You with yours there…
(Leopoldo Galtieri)
Send in the troops…
Isn't it great? Don’t you agree?
Nothing like mad little wars to gain unity?
Send in the troops…
(Margaret Thatcher)
I’ll send them in too!
(Together)
Just when we were… losing control…
Seeing our standing collapse in all of the polls…
You marched right into this place, god-knows where…
Up to that point, you didn't care…
(Margaret Thatcher)
Rejoice, rejoice! We rule the waves!
A shame about all those young men in graves…
Send in the troops…
Now where are those troops?
They’ll always be… there…
Trivia[]
It is widely thought that the title of this song is "Send in the Drones", largely because of Galtieri's accent during his first solo, and because "Drones" is in fact closer to the original lyrics of "Send in the Clowns". In actuality, Galtieri is saying "Troops" when he sings, and it his Argentine accent that makes it sound like "Drones".